End-of-month quiz.
Although ninth grade wasn't quite like the third year of high school, the pressure of the high school entrance exam was still intense.
At Tieshikou Middle School, a mid-sized exam was held at the end of every month.
Huang Yifan was no stranger to tests.
Still, to avoid drawing attention, he planned to just do the questions casually and aim for a just-passing score.
In the morning, they tested Chinese and math. There wasn't much difficulty; Huang Yifan finished quickly and handed in his paper early.
The afternoon continued with tests in English and social studies.
"Huang Yifan, you handed in your paper so early this morning. Did you really finish everything?"
Before the test started, Zhang Huiping whispered.
"Yeah, I finished it all."
"No way, you're that good? You knew how to do all of it?"
"Nope."
"Then why did you finish everything?"
"Because I didn't know, so I figured I'd guess and see if I could get lucky."
"That works too?"
Zhang Huiping was dumbfounded.
While the two were chatting quietly, someone from the back row tapped Huang Yifan.
"Huang Yifan, we've got the English test coming up, and I'm so screwed. How are you planning to survive it?"
The one speaking was Xia Hui, who sat behind him. His grades in other subjects were decent, but English… just like Huang Yifan, he usually scored around 30 out of 120. Basically, a total blank when it came to English. The only reason he even got 30 points was that there were a lot of multiple-choice questions, and he lucked into a few correct answers by random guessing.
Huang Yifan and Xia Hui were often scolded by the English teacher, sharing the same "pain."
"Just wing it. What, you've got some secret method now?"
"Exactly. I've got a secret weapon for this test. I'm confident I can score 40 points with it."
"A secret weapon?"
"Let me show you, but don't tell anyone."
Acting all mysterious, Xia Hui pulled out a die. "Look, this is it!"
"What the… I thought it was something serious. This is your so-called secret weapon?"
Huang Yifan was speechless.
"Come on, Xia Hui, what good is a die? Your odds with that are the same as just picking randomly. Maybe worse."
"Not necessarily. Picking randomly is boring. Using a die is more fun. And who knows, maybe the heavens will bless me today."
"Bless you, my ass. But Xia Hui, I actually have a secret technique for multiple-choice that could get you 60 points. With some luck, maybe even 70 or 80."
"Pfft, you're not telling me to cheat, are you? Don't insult my integrity. I, Xia Hui, would rather get 30 points than cheat. Although now that you mention it, no one near me is any good at English anyway. Even if I wanted to copy, I couldn't. Hey, why don't you try bribing Jiang Weiwei in front of you?"
"Get lost, I'm not the type to cheat. My method doesn't involve copying or cheating, just pure skill."
"Yeah, right. Let's hear it then."
"Alright, listen up."
Clearing his throat, Huang Yifan began, "This secret technique is called the 'Invincible English Multiple-Choice Method.' The rule is: if you see three long options and one short one, choose the short one. If it's three short and one long, choose the long one. If it's two long and two short, pick B. If it's all jumbled and uneven, pick C."
"Huh…"
"What does that even mean?"
Xia Hui looked baffled. He didn't get it at all.
"Come on, Xia Hui, you usually seem smart, how are you not getting this? It's simple. When doing multiple-choice, forget the questions and just follow this pattern: if three options are long and one is short, pick the short one. If three are short and one is long, pick the long one. Two long and two short? Pick B. If there's no clear pattern at all, go with C."
"This actually works?"
"Why wouldn't it?"
"Seriously?"
"No joke, I perfected this technique through hundreds of trials. I don't share it with just anyone."
Xia Hui was skeptical, but it kind of made sense, so he nodded. "Alright, I'll try it."
Time passed quickly, and the English exam began that afternoon.
Although he'd shared his "ultimate" test strategy from his past life, Huang Yifan didn't actually plan on using it.
He'd passed the CET-4 exam. There was no way junior high English could be difficult for him.
That said, even though he had the skills, Huang Yifan had always disliked English.
If it hadn't been for needing to graduate in his previous life, he would never have bothered with the CET-4.
And now, in this new life, he still had to deal with English, a language he'd probably never use again. That annoyed him.
So, while doing the exam, Huang Yifan intentionally avoided the correct answers.
After two days of testing, the end-of-month exam at Tieshikou Middle School finally ended.
Because the high school entrance exam was approaching fast, the teachers didn't waste time. Even though the exam had just ended, the ninth-grade staff gathered in a large office to start grading.
The first subject to be fully graded was math.
"All done."
Lin Jinfen, the homeroom teacher for Class 2, flexed her hands and sighed in relief.
Math was relatively easy to grade; you could immediately tell if the answer was right or wrong. But even so, finishing under pressure was exhausting.
"So fast, Ms. Lin?"
On the other side, the Chinese teacher Ye Fei looked over enviously. "Ugh, I should've become a math teacher back then."
"Well, we can swap next term. You teach math, I'll teach Chinese."
"No thanks. You could probably handle Chinese, but me teaching math? I don't even remember the formulas."
"You're too modest."
Lin Jinfen laughed and turned to the English teacher, Huang Yilian. "How's it going, Ms. Huang? Almost done?"
"Just about, English is also fairly easy to grade. By the way, how did your Class 2 do in math?"
"Not bad."
Lin nodded, satisfied with the math results. "We had some high scores this time. Jiang Weiwei got 113, Xia Hui 112, Zhang Hua also 112, Liu Guiquan 110. A few others scored 100+. Even the students who usually struggle did alright. Like Xia Cixiang, Yan Runfu, and Huang Yifan, they all passed. Pretty decent."
"Congrats!"
"Thanks. I'm almost done, too," said Huang Yilian cheerfully.
A few minutes later, she smiled. "Okay, all done!"
"Oops, forgot, haven't totaled the scores yet. Still more to do."
"No worries, Ms. Huang. I've finished my part. I'll help. You call the names and scores, I'll tally them."
Huang Yilian was a new teacher, recently assigned to the school. The other ninth-grade teachers were very supportive. Since Lin Jinfen had finished grading, she offered to help tally.
"Oh, I couldn't impose…"
"Don't be so polite. I'm free anyway. Two people will save time. Plus, I'm Class 2's homeroom teacher, I want to see how these kids did."
"Well, thank you, Ms. Lin."
Seeing Lin insist, Huang didn't refuse further. One read the scores, the other wrote them down.
"Jiang Weiwei, 100 points."
"What? Jiang Weiwei didn't do so well in English this time."
Lin frowned.
"Not necessarily. The English test was harder this time, especially a few multiple-choice questions. Even I had to think for a few minutes to solve them."
"I see."
As they worked, they chatted quietly.
"Liu Guiquan, 98."
"Zhang Hua, 97."
"Zhu Jing, 97."
"Xia Hui, 84."
"Wait a second…"
Lin paused. "Ms. Huang, who did you just say?"
"Xia Hui. Why?"
"No way! Xia Hui got 84? How?"
As Class 2's homeroom teacher, Lin knew her students' abilities well.
Xia Hui was strong in other subjects and popular with the teachers. But English, he was hopeless. Even students with poor English could score 50 or 60. Xia Hui? Usually 30. On a bad day, he'd dip into the 20s.
Lin had tried many methods to help him, but nothing worked. Maybe he was just naturally bad at it.
Whatever she tried, his score always hovered around 30.
Infuriating.
If it weren't for this one weakness, he'd have no problem getting into a top high school.
But with English scores that low, even a regular high school was risky.
Now, suddenly, Ms. Huang was saying he scored 84?
Impossible.
"Let me take a look."
Ms. Huang also knew about Xia Hui's situation. When Lin pointed it out, she quickly understood.
"His multiple-choice was surprisingly good; he scored 80 out of 90 there. The rest he mostly got wrong, but since he answered everything and showed effort, I gave him 4 extra points. That made 84. But still… the choices were hard this time. How did he get them right?"
She looked at Xia Hui's test paper, baffled.
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